


For Her

by weebutwicked



Category: The Order (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24918367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weebutwicked/pseuds/weebutwicked
Summary: It had started with the small things. More late-night meetups, dinners that ended in shared bottles of wine and soft laughter, she even let him stay the night once or twice. He'd wake up in the morning and she'd be curled in his shirt with a refusal to get up. During the day he swore she was never far from him, whether he was teaching a class or at the bar or even studying at the den. He always felt or smelled her nearby though he never saw her.Set throughout Season 2 so spoilers for the whole season.
Relationships: Hamish Duke/Vera Stone
Comments: 5
Kudos: 77





	For Her

**Author's Note:**

> This is just my fun take on S2. There were some subtle hints at Vermish in season one and naturally we saw it come to full bloom this year, but there were a few little comments or sequences that made me wonder if like a proper sanctioned union for Vermish could be a possibility whether it was hidden in S2 or maybe for a future season, given how quickly Hamish took to protecting Vera so fiercely and how many jokes the Knights made about them. 
> 
> Also, I figured the price of the Fors Factoram was her daughter given how she convincingly said she would pay the price later. Maybe she did the spell after but, it just seemed to fit. No beta, quickly written while in a writing frenzy so any mistakes are my own.

“What are you, pregnant?” Fucking dick. No, he wasn’t, but he also wasn’t up to soaking himself in 300 dollar bottles of champagne and waking up with a killer neck ache on the floor of the den covered in gods know what. So, what if he wanted to be sober, stay extra alert? He'd earned that by now, put in more time and sweat than any of them. It was okay to tone down the persona for a while.

Besides, the last time he had been well and good distracted and still drinking like it was an Olympic sport, Vera almost died, he had been kidnapped. The Knights were nearly cast out and killed. Angus would have attacked the Grand Magus in her own temple, and he might have gotten away with it because Kepler was so bent on getting rid of Vera. He almost lost her once when Praxis attacked, it wasn’t going to happen again. 

Not if he had anything to say about it. Not if _they_ had anything to say about it.

Admittedly things were different now. Vermish, as Randall had taken to calling them behind their backs... and even once to their faces, were on the same page, with almost everything. They put their heads together and strategized for the future, for the Knights and the Order. For them. What was appropriate and what wasn't. Tundra had proven just as protective of Vera as he was and that was excellent news.

Because while Hamish wasn’t pregnant, he could see himself settling down with Vera someday. Maybe a pup or two, if she wanted. Not that he could tell her that, she'd fucking kill him and mount him on her wall like a trophy but, it was a cute thought... dream thing. Vera was a formidable partner, he could only be so lucky. It also just made tactical sense. It said in the journals that Knights and Roses had done some wild things together in order to ensure success, it wasn't out of the question.

It had started with the small things. Late-night researching, dinners that ended in shared bottles of wine and soft laughter, she even let him stay the night once or twice. He'd wake up in the morning and she'd be curled in his shirt with a refusal to get up. During the day he swore she was never far from him, whether he was teaching a class or at the bar or even studying at the den. He always felt or smelled her nearby though he never saw her. 

Tundra laughed at him it about it but it was partly her fault too. She liked Vera just as much as he did. They regularly growled under their shared breath when she entered a room and followed her every move with hungry eyes. They were always listening. It felt good to be this in sync with his wolf after all of the struggles about Jack the year before. It was just easy with her. 

Randall might have him mercilessly about how hot he was for teacher but damn if it wasn't harder to deny each time and both Hamish and Randall knew it. Fuck, he had it bad.

Thank god she did not drop in on his lessons or he would never get anything done.

Now, he did not love Vera Stone, not yet, but they were still... he cared for her but he wasn't even sure they were anything other than colleagues from the way she acted. Hot and cold barely described it. Randall was clearly convinced she was his girlfriend. Friends with benefits? Were they even friends? All he knew is that she smelled different to the other Knights and he liked it and that he needed to protect her at all costs.

Like she was a cute but angry bunny or something. A bad analogy given he was a wolf but it was a funny thought nonetheless.

Foley bringing a magical parasite of death into their temple and causing chaos had put them both on edge, the vote had already been weighing heavily on her shoulders and his knee jerk reaction to Angus coming for her nearly cost her the seat. Hamish didn't regret it though, nobody got to speak to the Grand Magus like that and when he smelled the anger rolling off Angus, he just saw red. 

That’s why he'd guiltily explained to her while they waited on the votes, hoped that she would understand why he did it, and she had, but it had still shaken them both. Whatever they were was still new and both he and Vera were still trying to figure each other out. A public display like that, in front of the Adepti no less, was a huge statement piece and one maybe neither of them had been expecting so soon, but he couldn't help how he felt.

The problem now was that Vera would be labelled a wolf lover too, publicly, rather than just in nasty jest and as an attempted insult to throw her off by Randall. Vera accepted that was her fate the minute she saw Hamish wolf out to protect her, with as much grace as she could muster because she did care about these idiot wolves even if she would never admit to it. As their leader, Hamish made her feel safe and he knew it.

When she held him back from the raids, he didn’t quite understand why. He’d been hurt by it and briefly wondered if she might have considered him unworthy or less than he had been before his kidnapping; that he might have failed her somehow. He’d been following her with little question, even going against his fellow Knights to aid her in her, their, cause. Both the Order and the Knights would benefit from their partnership, he just wished the others understood that. 

He had not originally believed that Vera was willing to kill a Gnostic Councilman and injure Kepler in order to be granted absolute control, seeing it made part of Hamish worry. He didn't quite agree with the risk that **she** could get hurt, and had been more suspicious when she all but pushed him out of the gym, but thinking back on it understood it was what needed to be done for the greater good. Magic could not continue to be given and used so freely, not with the risk of global catastrophe.

They were decisions a true leader would make, the hard ones were always the worst.

The more and more Hamish sided with her though, he felt himself becoming more connected to the magic and allure of the Order, to Vera. Sort of like Jack said Alyssa felt to the Prometheans. Day by day he felt like his leadership and control was slowly bending to Vera even though Tundra seemed settled, content. Like there was something the wolf knew that he didn't. He just wished she would tell him. Every time he thought he got closer to an answer the game board changed.

It became discovering Salvador was Alpha. Kepler calling Invocare, Jason Priestly winning Grand Magus.

Which made parlay with Salvador was a mistake. They both knew it. He wasn't allowed to go with her, and she still insisted on the meeting knowing the risks. He didn't like it and she knew it so she kept him away, dismissed him like she would an acolyte and not like her ... well, he called her mate and she was warming up to calling him Hamish. Small steps.

Eventually Vera began to tell him though, her reasonings and misgivings. Finally began to reveal some of her many hidden cards; That it wasn't due to him being incompetent but purely out of a selfish need to have him close. That did things to him. Clearly Jack wasn't her only favourite.

Cue the next mess with Alyssa barreling into the temple, making her demands and he feared the worst. She had been rogue and with Salvador for too long. Alyssa was hellbent on revenge and going to kill Vera and he wasn't going to be able to do anything to stop it. His last view before hitting the ground was Vera staring at him with fear and worry in her eyes. She did care for him!

So, when he awoke to find her still breathing, it felt like the first true win in ages. Hamish didn’t know if he could have survived another loss like Cassie, he just didn’t. His heart was elated until he realized what Alyssa had done to her. Staring down at her and seeing such defeat and loss in her bones, he felt like he'd failed to protect her all over again. He just wanted to reach out and comfort her and she barely even let him do that, slipping away from him as soon as he got too close. 

Vera’s magic was _everything_ to her. She had fought so long and so hard for everything she had. He had seen and felt all of her life's pain through the Egrogore. It was what she lived and breathed, and he knew she wanted to do good with it, despite appearances. Even the desire to rid herself of the Vade Maecum proved she was leaps and bounds ahead of her predecessor. She would not be another Edward Coventry. They all knew what she’d lost because of that desire for power. 

For Vera, magic was all she had been before and all she had left until she died. 

And now Hamish knew that day could come a lot sooner than he’d thought. Realizing that at some point in her life she had performed the Fors Factoram and it was slowly but surely killing her. Without Vera’s magic to starve it off… it was likely going to spread like wildfire, and it was going to happen a lot faster than Vera had planned on and she knew it. 

It scared her shitless.

Suddenly it all made sense to him. Why she was so willing to have the Knights aid the Order, why she was willing to take him up on his drinks and his debates. His affections. Letting him into her reliquary to admire her books. Clearly, Vera had just been humouring him at first and then it became something more and now she was scared of that too, which was why she didn’t want him to care about her. 

Because there was no point, because she was going to die anyway, and the rest didn’t matter. Not the Order, not the Knights. Not whatever she had with Hamish. 

Why put either of them through that for anything more than a bit of fun? She had already paid dearly for her ambition in the price of her daughter and eventually, she would pay for it again with her own life. Which was why, with a drink in hand, she told him she wasn't about to step down even without her magic and that she was just "going to make the best of this god damn nightmare" before she died. 

Hasmish was not going to just stand there and watch her die though, whether she wanted him to or not. He would find a way to fix this, to get her magic back even if he had to take it from Alyssa's corpse himself. If Alyssa had killed Vera in the temple, he would have ripped her corpse apart in anger anyway, Jack be damned. An attack against Vera was an attack against him. She protected them more times than she should have, she was one of them as far as Hamish was concerned. 

He might have been becoming a bigger part of the Order but in turn, Vera was showing herself to be more of a Knight. A bit of a mean and temperamental one but still, a Knight. Furthermore, he loved her; Tundra loved her. They would fix this. He'd be there when she was hurting and when she didn't feel strong enough to venture out into the day, to debate with her about ethics and make plans and show a united front. Until Vera was herself again, he could be her magic anchor and supportive Temple Magus, a friend, a boyfriend. Whatever she needed. 

That much he could do for her.


End file.
